Teams365 Blog - POTENTIALS REALIZED

#teams365 #3048 Use the 8 Meeting Questions to have better Hybrid Meetings

5/10/2022

The pain of bad meetings has followed us into the hybrid space. Frustration, anger, even lack of response is shaping workspace meetings today.
It’s critical to keep hybrid meetings focused, as well as inclusive. Bringing all voices into the room is key, especially for those who are working outside of the office. Consider how you will activate the 5 Engagement Levers™ of any virtual space, which include:

Chat
Polling
Breakouts
Annotation
Whiteboards

Each of these provides an opportunity to different voices to be brought into the conversation.
Prepare before the meeting. It can be useful to pull out the 8 Meeting Questions I shared in Effective Virtual Conversations:

What’s the purpose?
What takeaways do we want?
Who needs to be on the call?
What preparation is needed for us to be most effective in the meeting?
What pace to do we want in order to keep it engaging?
What will help keep the focus?
What’s absolutely essential? (versus what will be nice to cover or where can people go for more information around topics?)
What follow up might be required?

(Excerpt: Effective Virtual Conversations, Britton, page 304, 2017)

What can you do to make your meetings more interactive, inclusive and focused?
Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#Teams365 #3047 Weekly Journaling Prompt – What are the conversations you need to have?

5/7/2022

What are the conversations which are going to support you to do your best work?

As Dan Sullivan shares in his book – Who Not How: Accelerating Teamwork, it’s our relationships which are sometimes as important, or even more so than others.

Spending time professionally to develop a series of relationships is key – peers, influencers, connectors (people who can connect you to other parts of the organization or to knowledge). Who else is important to get connected to in your work?

Who would like to connect with?

Enjoy the conversation,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

#teams365 #3045 Questions to Get the Mentoring Conversation Going

5/5/2022

One of the areas many readers enjoy is the questions provided in Reconnecting Workspaces, which they can apply to their own work.

I thought I would zoom us into page 289 of the book today which includes 6 questions you might want to use to get you mentoring conversations going:

What do you want to focus on today? What’s going to be a good outcome fro our call?
What have been your biggest successes as a team leader/professional?
What were the ingredients that have shaped your success? What has gotten in the way?
What have been the most important moved you have made in your career?
What resources do you recommend I tap into?
What’s the most important piece of advice you would have for new team leaders?
I hope that these questions may spark some new conversations for you. Enjoy!

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Follow us on Instagram @ReconnectingWorkspaces
Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my new book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon.

TEAMS365 #2330 - Week in Review

5/17/2020

It’s Sunday and what are you going to do to relax, recharge and refocus? Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week and this year I’ve been taking time each Sunday to review my successes of the week before, carry over tasks and think about my strategy for the week ahead. I try to do this in about 15-20 minutes each week. If you have a copy of PlanDoTrack you may want to use the week in review to track this…

My hope is that you also will take time today to focus in on some of the blog posts from this last week. This week we explored:

Enjoy your Sunday, reflection and planning!

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2325 – Remote Conversation Starters

5/12/2020

At this point of remote work, many have gotten into their groove (or not). One area which is always a challenge, and is absolutely essential for long term business success, is building relationships in the remote space. While old-school networking often felt uncomfortable, how are you approaching virtual networking and relationship development?

Here are 10 remote conversation starters you might want to try out:

Tell me a little about the work you do.
What are the major projects on your desk right now?
Tell me a little about your career progression and how you got to your current role?
What have you found to be a useful tip around building relationships virtually?
What’s been your biggest learning as a professional?
What are some strategies you use to (manage conflict, “manage up”, focus on you)?
What helps you be productive in the remote space?
What resources do you tap into regularly (websites, people etc)
What’s one tip or suggestion you have for others in our line of work/space?
What’s the piece of advice you have for others?

These are all possibilities. They may have resonance or not.

Key to remote working success is making a concreted effort to build relationships (horizontal, vertical, within your industry, outside your organization and industry) on a regular basis.

I hope that you find these remote conversation starters useful.

What other ones do you like to ask?

Enjoy the conversations!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your Q2 planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder

Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon, or join me for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your teams and organization with remote work.

Check out upcoming virtual programs on our calendar

PDF copies of PlanDoTrack now available! Get yours here.

TEAMS365 #2239 – Weekly Roundup: Remote Work Success, Remote Conversation Starters, Calibration

2/16/2020

Welcome back to another Sunday weekly round up. This week we continued our focus on remote work and relationships. If you missed a post this week, do take a look at:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Everything DiSC
Phone (416)996-8326

Get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

TEAMS365 #2196 – 20 Tips for 2020 – Day 4: Weekly Journaling Prompt 82

1/4/2020

Welcome to the first Weekly Journaling Prompt of 2020. These are quick prompts geared to get you to stop, pause and take stock of what’s occurring in your world of work, and life. In my work as a coach, I regularly hear how valuable it is to be able to “pause” to reflect on what’s happening and what action is needed. When are you stopping to “pause” and take stock of where you are? Pauses may be 5- 15 minute only. It’s often more about the quality than the quantity!

This week’s prompt gets you to reflect and write on “I want to invest in…”. What are the things you want to invest in this year?

Our focus is finite as is the time we have. Where do you CHOOSE to invest your time and focus? Where do you want to invest? What’s the benefit? What can be the benefit for others?

I hope that you will enjoy these and a quick reminder for those that facilitate that the new Conversation Sparker Journaling cards are now available as well. These are a great tangible tool to bring into your workshops or retreats or coaching sessions. Do everything virtually? Inquire about a digital license.

Enjoy your weekly reflection time!

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders | Remote Pathways Podcast
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Writing
Phone (416)996-8326

As we step into the end of the year, get your planning on with the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner or Coaching Business Builder
Looking to enhance your virtual conversations? Webinars? Pick up a copy of Effective Virtual Conversations at Amazon.

Coaches - Join me January 1st as we kick off the 60 Day Acclerator of the Coaching Business Builder. 60 days of focused action on your coaching business.

#TEAMS365 #1900 – Milestone and Team Building Tip 227

3/14/2019

Here we are at post 1900 of the Teams365 blog. I had no idea more than 5 years ago that I would be continuing to blog this long at the Teams365 blog. What started out as an experiment, has become an important part of my writing process. The Teams365 blog has also become a valuable resource for teams and leaders of all kinds. If you have enjoyed and benefited from past posts, share in the comments which have been your favorites. Also be sure to let others know about the resource!

If you have been following along my Thursday series, you’d know that today is a Team Building Tip day. I started these as a series of questions for team leaders to bring into their weekly team meetings. Since starting the series, the questions and images have become more sophisticated! Check out the first post here!

This week’s TBT gets you thinking ahead. In today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous context) world, we know that having a clear vision which can guide you through the choppy waters of more granular details can be useful. I hope that you will consider using this week’s question of “A year from now, at the start of 2020, we will have ________” as a valuable conversation sparker, and potentially a sign post to guide your efforts towards over the next 3 quarters!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), PlanDoTrack (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon
Join the conversation at the Conversation Sparker Zone - our online community where you can explore virtual and team issues, coaching, productivity and business development).
Check out the new 19 Tips for Productivity On-Demand Course. If this is your year to get things moving, check it out now. Join Jenn for bi-weekly live group calls until July. Learn more and enroll here.

#TEAMS365 #1851 – Team Building Tip 220

1/24/2019

This week’s team building tip gets you to explore the question “One change which is needed….”

Not every team may be comfortable asking this question as it might surface things that are “out of focus”.

By not asking questions like this we may erode trust and loyalty in the team. How is that you ask?

The skill of “constructive interaction” or debating alternative view points, has been found to be a critical skill for teams today.

Author of Teaming – Amy Edmonston – calls it “speaking up”. The ability to question and instill provocative conversation is key for strong relationships and also problem solving for teams (and individuals) in today’s business context.

In building a culture where questioning is fostered, it may necessitate a change in the way a team operates, and the level of comfort the team leader has. It may also involve the creation of shared agreements of how debate and discourse will operate, how it may or will feed into any changes and/or what next steps are from any discussion (i.e. will it feed into decision making, or will it influence decisions?
What’s needed on your team in order to have constructive dialogue?

This is #220 in the series which started back in 2014. You are invited to check out the new digital licensing option to bring 52 of the first series of tips into your current team meetings. You can purchase a set of 52 of the first of the 2015 series of cards in digital format over at our Potentials Realized Store. Once purchased, you’ll receive a link to access each of the weekly question in JPG format. You can incorporate these into your slide deck (as is) for your weekly team meeting or send it out as a “conversation sparker” for the team throughout the week.

Over the years I have had teams use the questions in many different ways. Check out the series of 52 questions here. You can purchase a digital license for $35 US -that’s just a little more than 50c a question.

The backstory to this product takes me back to my former role as a virtual team leader. While it would be great to have the time and creativity to do this on my own, I was always looking for great questions to prompt conversation. Unfortunately, I did not find many. When I started my own performance improvement business in 2004, many of my clients started commenting that they really liked having a focusing question of the week. Flash forward to 2014, when I started to “systematize” these through the weekly Teams365 Team Building Tip. Check out series one (which incorporates 52 tips from the 2014/2015 season). We’ll be adding additional ones throughout the year!

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon

#TEAMS365 #1842 – Productivity Tip #10: Support action with 3 bullet points

1/15/2019

#10 – Support Action and Clarity with 3 Bullet Points

Communicating in business is usually about creating clarity so that people can take action. If our message is lost in transmission, we may have lost an opportunity to support change, missed a sale, or weakened a relationship.
Brevity is key to effective presentations and business communication. It helps us stand out and helps our message be memorable.

The latency and recency effects assert that we remember the start and the end of things. What are the key messages that you want people to remember? Keeping the latency and recency effect in mind, it is best to include the main points at the start and reinforce these again at the end.

Starting and wrapping up your presentation with 3 bullet points can be an effective way to boost retention of your message.

Rather than going into a long description, boil it down to 3 bullet points.

Activity:
Think about your upcoming presentations or marketing messages. What are the key points you want to communicate? What do you want to get across?
Think about the presentation. Write out the three bullet points you want people to remember.
Now think about the audience. What is important to them? What action do you want them to take?
Now rewrite your three bullet points.
As you think about the overarching arc of the presentation, what can you do to reinforce these three bullet points at the start of the presentation, and at the end?
Insert it now!

The 3 bullet point tip is also useful beyond communication, in light of overall productivity. Simpler is better. It helps us focus. As it applies to time management, a the start of the day identify what are the 3 core items that MUST GET Done. If all else fails, what are those 3 things?

Conversation Sparkers:

What is the message you want to communicate?
What do you want people to remember, and take action on?
What are the three bullet points?

Thank you!
Jenn

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Now available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner - Order a copy today on Amazon